A look at what's going on in Trinidad, on H Street, and in the larger area north of Capitol Hill.

Monday, July 02, 2012

BARCADE Comes to H Street

Quit playing around and make plans to check out BARCADE

Erik Holzherr (Church and State, Wisdom) has just released details on his newest venture. BARCADE (1236 H Street)"will be an 80s retro-themed beer and video game bar." He plans to hold a grand opening Tuesday July 10th.

If it's like the one in NYC I will be very excited. Classic obscure games plus great drinks is an awesome combo. I think the space is too small though. They will need to fill up the eastern wall with games and not have room for tables.

I think this sounds like a good idea, but like Fruit Bat and Church and State before it, it's all in the execution. If it's half assed (a few games) and done with a hokey quick-change interior people won't return.

It's hard to see how a space that small can host a concept like this, but hopefully I'm wrong.

This will succeed if and only if they have more games other than donkey kong and ms. pacman. I'm a 30 something and do not remember those games. Those are probably more for the 40 somethings crowd.BTW - this is not a dumb idea. I love the concept and for us 30 somethings who grew up in the Nintendo era I know most, if not all of us will be frequent customers (assuming the selection is there).

I'm in my late 20's and certainly remember Ms. Pac-Man and Donkey Kong. They both came out in the early 80's, but I remember seeing them at arcades well into the 90's. Ms. Pac-Man, in particular, was my favorite game at both the laundromat my family went to during the six months we lived in an apartment with no washer/dryer and at our local pizza place. I'm excited for this place!

I do agree that it would be awesome if they got rid of Church & State and made Barcade (or whatever the name will be) two stories.